he way of Germans
in cities and summer places, and it is a very small proportion of the
educated classes who lead what we call a country life. "Elizabeth"
knows German country life, and describes it in her charming books;
perhaps she will some day choose to tell us how the men in her part of
the world amuse themselves, and whether they are good sportsmen. I
must confess that I have only once seen a German in full sporting
costume. It was most impressive, though, a sort of pinkish grey bound
everywhere with green, and set off by a soft felt hat and feathers. As
we were having a walk with him, and it was early summer, we ventured
to ask him what he had come to kill. "Bees," said he, and killed one
the next moment with a pop-gun.

CHAPTER XXI

INNS AND RESTAURANTS

English people who have travelled in Germany know some of the big
well-kept hotels in the large towns, and know that they are much like
big hotels in other continental cities. It is not in these
establishments that you can watch national life or discover much about
the Germans, except that they are good hotel-keepers; and this you
probably discovered long ago abroad or at home. If you are a woman,
you may be impressed by the fineness, the whiteness, the profusion,
and the embroidered monograms of the linen, whether you are in a huge
caravanserai or a wayside inn. Otherwise a hotel at Cologne or
Heidelberg has little to distinguish it from a hotel at Brussels or
Bale. The dull correct suites of furniture, the two narrow bedsteads,
even the table with two tablecloths on it, a thick and a thin, the
parqueted floor, and the small carpet are here, there, and everywhere
directly you cross the Channel.

The modern German tells you with pride that this apparent want of
national quality and colour is to be felt in every corner of life, and
that what you take to be German is not peculiarly German at all, but
common to the whole continent of Europe. This may be true in certain
cases and in a certain sense, but there is another sense in which it
is never true. For instance, the women of continental nations wear
high-necked gowns in the evening. It is only English women who wear
evening gowns as a matter of course every day of their lives. I have
been told in Germany that, so far from being a sign of civilisation,
this fashion is merely a stupid survival from the times when all the
women of Europe went barenecked all day. However this may be, there is
no doubt